One cashier saw Waters’ Mitt Romney for President sticker and declared he backed the re-election of President Obama.

“But the other,” recalled Waters, “said he thought the country needs a change. That difference of opinion kind of stood for what we were doing in Florida.”

Indeed, more Georgians like Waters, president of the College Republicans at Armstrong Atlantic State University, are spending time there these days.

Meanwhile, people from Massachusetts are headed to New Hampshire and Ohio, as are some from Illinois to Wisconsin. The list goes on.

The visitors are knocking on doors, making phone calls and helping out at rallies for Democrat Obama or GOP challenger Romney.

They want to make a difference in next Tuesday’s election, but can’t in their own states.

They can’t because we elect the president state-by-state, not by popular majority. Each state gets a number of votes — called electoral votes — equal to the sum of its two U.S. senators and its representatives.

With just two exceptions, it’s winner-take-all. Carry Georgia by any margin, for example, and you get all 16 of its electoral votes. A bigger margin gets you nothing more.

The volunteers have something else in common: They’re from states where the outcome’s not in doubt and work in ones where it is.

Avoiding wasted energy

“As long as we have the Electoral College,” said AASU political science instructor Kathleen Burke, “it makes strategic sense for any campaign to use cross-border people resources in a battleground state.”

Otherwise, Burke said, winner-take-all means the energy of fervent backers of candidates in states that aren’t closely contested is wasted.

Like Obama’s campaign, Romney’s has been recruiting people to trek to Florida, Virginia and North Carolina.

“Georgia is a Republican state,” said Eric Tannenblatt, state finance chairman for Romney. “As we get closer to Nov. 6, it’s logical to put our resources in states where they matter. Georgia’s obviously not one of them. And Florida is.”

Like others, Tannenblatt concedes there’s almost no way Romney can win without Florida’s big bloc of 29 electoral votes.

Although some state Democratic leaders talk about the possibility of Obama upsetting Romney in Georgia, polls indicate otherwise.

“What we’re doing in Georgia is important,” she said, “but Florida could determine the presidential election.”

Members of the conservative tea party also have been heading to other states. They’re steering clear of direct support for Romney, but make it clear that they oppose Obama.

“We’re big advocates for the Constitution and for free enterprise,” said Jeanne Seaver of Savannah, who led a group of five people who went to Florida last weekend. “We’re targeting neighborhoods with conservative voters.”

The practice of pulling volunteers from non-competitive states to hotly contested ones is nothing new.

Georgians mostly stayed home in 2008, when the race in the Peach State was relatively close — Obama beat GOP nominee John McCain by 5 percentage points.

But not in 2004, when President George W. Bush ran 16 points ahead of Democrat John Kerry. As they are now, Georgians on both sides worked mostly in Florida, with a few going to Ohio.

A similar electioneering migratory pattern prevailed across the country.

Reaching out by phone

Not all cross-border work requires physical prescense in another state. The Obama and Romney campaigns have people who let their fingers do the walking; working at home, they reach voters across the country by phone.

Marolyn Overton, a leader in the Savannah Tea Party, said she’s called more than 100 people in Ohio, Nevada and Virginia.

“My job is to get people to think about whether they’re better off than they were four years ago,” Overton said.

AASU’s Burke agrees it’s smart to move volunteers into states where their efforts matter.

“In the final weeks,” she said “... the ability of a candidate to have their name, message and face seen and heard by as many folks as possible can have a tremendous impact ... especially ... in fiercely competitive states.

“It would ... be a waste of needed resources ... not to use the people resources itching to be a part of the political game.”

Most Obama and Romney supporters seem glad they devoted weekends or other time to helping in another state.

Fisher recalls the Jacksonville woman who opened her door just a crack and appeared uninterested in discussing the election. But Fisher said she kept her talking and explained how Obama’s policies will affect her life.

In the end, Fisher said, the woman not only agreed to vote for him but also signed up to work for him.

“It was very rewarding,” Fisher said. “It was the sort of thing that made the two-hour drive worth it.”

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